Abstract:

Five different tomato varieties were chosen as the experimental subjects in the Yanqi basin, and two types of cultivated land were selected as experimental sites, including selenium-enriched land with a selenium content of 0.4 mg/kg in the soil, and non-selenium-enriched land with no detectable selenium content. The objective of this study was to analyze and evaluate the selenium enrichment ability and quality of these tomato varieties in natural selenium-enriched soil, and to identify the varieties that were suitable for local cultivation. The findings would provide a theoretical foundation for the development of the selenium-enriched industry in the Yanqi basin. The results revealed that the processed tomato varieties in selenium-enriched areas met the standards for selenium-enriched agricultural products and were considered natural selenium-enriched tomatoes. The varieties ‘Tunhe 1943’, ‘Tunhe 3501’, and ‘Tunhe 5501’ exhibited strong selenium enrichment abilities, with bioconcentration factors of 6.6%, 6.6%, and 6.3%, respectively. Planting processed tomatoes in natural selenium-enriched soil improved the quality of the tomatoes, as evidenced by higher lycopene content in the selenium-enriched areas compared to the non-selenium-enriched areas. Furthermore, ‘Tunhe 3501’ and ‘Tunhe 5501’ had higher lycopene content than ‘Tunhe 1015’, ‘Tunhe 1943’ and ‘Tunhe 17’. In selenium-enriched areas, the reducing sugar content of ‘Tunhe 1943’, ‘Tunhe 3501’, and ‘Tunhe 17’ was higher than that in non-selenium-enriched areas. The total acid content of processed tomatoes in selenium-enriched areas was also higher than that in non-selenium-enriched areas. ‘Tunhe 3501’ had the highest total acid content, followed by ‘Tunhe 1943’, and ‘Tunhe 1015’ had the lowest content. A comprehensive analysis of the membership function demonstrated that ‘Tunhe 3501’ performed the best overall in natural selenium-enriched soil, followed by ‘Tunhe 1943’.

Key words: natural selenium-rich soil, natural selenium-rich tomato, nutritional quality, enrichment coefficient, membership function